JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian activists, backed by supporters such as Jimmy Carter, Lech Walesa and Nelson Mandela, yesterday launched a campaign to win support for their Mideast “peace plan” at a ceremony hosted in Switzerland by actor Richard Dreyfuss.

But the Israeli government, hawkish rabbis and Muslim militants ridiculed the so-called “Geneva accord” as a fantasy.

The plan has particularly infuriated Israeli officials because the Israelis involved in the accords – including Amram Mitzna, who lost in the elections to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon – have acted as though they have the authority to reach a peace deal.

The proposals, secretly negotiated for two years and which have no governmental authority, are more specific than the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace “road map” that would lead to a Palestinian state.

Supporters of the Geneva plan said the road map is dead, and the accord advances the peace process by nailing down “understandings” that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and 98 percent of the West Bank.

“It is unlikely that we shall ever see a better foundation for peace,” Carter said, after receiving a standing ovation in the packed Geneva conference hall.

“Peace is right around the corner,” Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin insisted.

The negotiators acknowledge they had no official authority but backers said they were justified in trying to end Mideast violence.

“Peace is far too serious to be left exclusively to governments,” Dreyfuss said.

Dozens of current and former world leaders, including Bill Clinton, expressed support for the plan.

Carter criticized the President Bush-backed road-map peace plan for being “invariably supportive of Israel.”

He also said the failure to resolve the Palestinian issue was a “primary source of anti-American sentiment” in the Mideast and “a major incentive for terrorist activity.”

Meanwhile, 250 rabbis in Israel denounced the proposed pact as an “act of treason” that would divide Jerusalem and hand over control to the Palestinians of the sacred Temple Mount area.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the accord a positive step but did not endorse the terms.

Sharon said the accord would not “divert us from our commitment to go along the road map” and again called for renewal of talks.

Last week, he charged the accord would “create damage, just damage.”

Yesterday, a senior Israeli official told The Post it was “a maneuver by Arafat to divide Israeli public opinion.”

A new poll released yesterday found 38 percent of Israelis oppose the accord and 31 percent are in favor.

“Arafat got more concessions under these terms than he did at Camp David in 2000, and he believes that when he eventually starts to negotiate with Israel, this will be the starting point – for more Israeli concessions,” the senior official said.

With Post Wire Services

Key points of the “Accord”

* Israel would concede control of 98 percent of the West Bank, all of the Gaza Strip and Arab-populated sections of east Jerusalem. The land would become a Palestinian state.

* Palestinians would esssentially give up their demand that nearly 4 million refugees could return to Israel.

* Large Jewish settlerments would remain in West Bank under swap of that land for uninhabited Israeli land.

* Jerusalem would be divided by a bulletproof wall.

* The disputed Al Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount would be under Palestinian sovereignty but monitored by an international force.